Two firms expanding on LI through Start-Up NY

By: David Winzelberg November 1, 2016Comments Off on Two firms expanding on LI through Start-Up NY

A bio-tech company and an e-commerce firm will take space at two Long Island schools in expansions aided by the Start-Up NY program.

Manhattan-based eParel is in the testing phase of a web-based technology platform designed to help the hotel and hospitality industries be more efficient in their management of uniforms worn by employees. The company will take tax-free space in Bush Brown Hall at Long Island University in Brookville, where it pledged to create 24 jobs, according to a statement from Empire State Development Corp.

EParel will provide its platform to hotels, restaurants and catering companies that will utilize the platform on a contract basis. The platform is designed to save its customers time and money by eliminating the need to order, launder, and distribute uniforms.

Certerra, a biotechnology company that developed a method of brain screening used in neuroscience drug discovery, has pledged to invest $500,000 and bring two jobs to the Broad Hollow Bioscience Park at Farmingdale State College. The space was designated as tax-free space as a New York State incubator that’s affiliated with the college. The company, based on the campus of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, is working on screening compounds being developed for a broad spectrum of brain disorders, including neurodevelopmental, psychiatric and neurodegenerative ones, as well as repurposing of existing drugs.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has had to defend the Start-Up NY jobs program, which the state has spent $53 million promoting with television and radio commercials. A state report released in July found that Start-Up NY had created only 408 jobs since its creation in 2013. The program, which uses tax-free zones at colleges and universities to attract companies, now has commitments from 202 companies to create at least 4,490 new jobs and invest more than $251 million over the next three-to-five years throughout the state, according to the ESD statement.

“This program continues to attract companies with visionary goals to every region of our state and is playing a key role in revitalizing those communities,” Cuomo said in the statement. “This unique model of partnering innovative companies with our world-class colleges and universities not only creates new jobs, but also leverages hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment to stimulate regional growth.”